South African National survey of Research and Experimental Development 2017/18: key sector results and trends: business sector R&D at a glance. Fact sheet 21

R&D performance in the South African formal business sector is vital to the national system of innovation and the future growth of the economy. This fact sheet shows that business spent nearly R16 billion on R&D in 2017/18, equivalent to 0.34% of the country's GDP. Three quarters of this investment was concentrated in the natural sciences, technology and engineering. The lion's share (93.5%) of all business sector R&D expenditure is for applied research and experimental development research, geared to solving problems at firm-level.